Oddity ending explained: Who really killed Dani and why?

Oddity is being hailed as one of 2024's scariest movies, and its critical score reflects that, with an impressive 96% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The IFC Films/Shudder movie comes from Caveat director Damian Mc Carthy. Like with Caveat, Mc Carthy wrote and directed Oddity, a film that follows a blind psychic investigating the murder of her sister when she suspects the supposed real culprit might not be responsible. Spoilers ahead for Oddity.

Who killed Dani?

Despite insisting that former psychiatric inmate Olin Boole was the man who murdered his wife, the film's third act reveals that the real culprit all along was Dani's own husband, Dr. Ted Timmis, with assistance from one of the hospital orderlies, a nasty piece of work named Ivan.

It turns out that Ted had been cheating on Dani with Yana for some time. That's how he "moved on" so quickly. Tim wanted to split with Dani but believed she'd take the house and make the divorce difficult. Instead of dealing with that like an adult, he instructs Ivan to slip into the house while she's there alone and kill her. Olin happens to overhear this conversation while eavesdropping through a vent in his cell, that's why he tries to get ahead of them and warn Dani.

Initially believing that Olin really did kill her sister, Darcy avenges Dani by brutally murdering Olin. By using her psychometric powers and Olin's glass eye, Darcy is able to access his memories and, therefore, the conversation he overheard. She learns the truth about her brother-in-law and his deceit.

What happens in the very end?

Once Darcy confronts Ted, he puts a new plan into action to kill her, too. Since Darcy is blind and unfamiliar with the house layout, he opens a secret trap door in the floor and Darcy falls into it, plummeting to her (almost) death. Later, Ted tells Ivan to go to the house to finish Darcy off.

As she lies there dying, she uses her connection to the wooden mannequin to bring it to life and kill Ivan. Unfortunately for her, she dies before she can have the mannequin finish the job. But the entire incident seriously spooks Ivan, and he starts rambling about the mannequin coming to life to a nurse. Tim overhears. He can't have Ivan confessing, obviously, so he lets one of his other violent inmates free to brutally murder Ivan while he's restrained.

Ted returns home, now technically off scot-free. Darcy and Dani are both dead, and even though Yana dumps him after everything, he's got his reputation intact, and the house is still his. It looks like Tim is going to escape without any kind of retribution until he gets a package sent from Darcy's oddities store. Inside is the haunted call bell. Ted boldly presses the button despite Darcy previously warning him that the last people who hit the bell died.

We know Ted is too arrogant to heed that warning, and he can't help himself. So after he dings the bell and nothing happens, he assumes he was right not to worry until the final frame shows the ghost of the vengeful bellhop standing behind, likely about to kill him.

What's the deal with the wooden mannequin?

The wooden dummy, or the "Wooden Man" as he's also referred to as, comes from the folklore surrounding golems. Director/writer Damian Mc Carthy chatted with Mashable about his inspiration for the entity.

Yes, the mannequin also plays on popular horror tropes about dolls coming to life, but the golem is a clay creature inspired by Jewish folklore that can come to life and do whatever its creator tells it to.

"There's stuff in there that's never really explained. Like, what are these rituals? Or how does this work? It's a little bit like with the holes in the back of [The Wooden Man's] head."

Oddity doesn't really go into detail about what the Wooden Man is or how its connection to Darcy works, but there is a scene where Yana stars pulling things out of the holes in its skull, indicating Darcy uses a ritual of some sort to control it. That's further emphasized in the end when Darcy seems to use a few drops of her blood to control the mannequin while he's dying.

Oddity is now available to rent or buy on demand, but it will begin streaming on Shudder on Friday, September 27.